Women’s
Center Series on Women in Public Policy
First Lady Of Virginia Lisa Collis To Speak At University Of Virginia

January 23, 2004 --
From
volunteering with Madison House as a student to serving as the
honorary chairwoman
of Prevent Child Abuse Virginia, Lisa Collis,
a U.Va. alumna and the first lady of Virginia, has displayed a
strong commitment in her public life to women’s and children’s
issues. She will be the first speaker in the University of Virginia
Women’s Center yearlong series on women and public policy.
Collis’ talk, free and open to the public, will be held at
4 p.m., Feb. 4, in the Rotunda Dome Room. A question-and-answer
session and a reception, in the Lower West Oval Room, will follow.

Collis,
mother of three daughters and wife of Va. Governor Mark Warner,
received the 2003 Commissioner’s Award from the national
Administration on Children and Families in recognition of her
leadership, dedication and accomplishments in the prevention
of child abuse
and neglect in Virginia. She and Warner founded the Collis-Warner
Foundation, where she leads the foundation’s efforts on
child and family issues, including child abuse and health care.

Collis
has contributed more than a decade of service to the prevention
of child abuse in various capacities, including as a volunteer
Court-Appointed Special Advocate for Stop Child Abuse Now of
Northern Virginia. She also has served as a member of the Stop
Child Abuse
Now Board of Directors and the board’s Executive Committee.
As a CASA volunteer, Collis worked directly with children who
had been abused or neglected. She represented the interests
of the
children before the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in
Alexandria.

After
getting her bachelor’s degree from U.Va.
in 1977, Collis earned a master’s in public health
from the University of Texas. She worked as a public health
consultant
at the World Bank
from 1985-’89, where she focused on food and nutrition
issues and on AIDS assistance for Africa. She also worked
as a migrant
program assistant and outreach worker on the East Coast Migrant
Health Project.

Through
its spring 2004 lecture series, Virginia 2020: Innovations in
Public Service, the Women’s Center
will present female activists involved in the public sector.
Featuring a variety of
speakers, many of whom have graduated from the University,
the series explores the ways in which women are the movers
and shakers
in the world of public policy — from legislators and
judges to economic advisers and public officials.